A WREATH will be laid at the grave of an unknown child in Burnley on Thursday.

The ceremony to commemorate National Day of the Dead will be performed by David Parker, a senior director at the Co-operative Funeral Service, Burnley.

The child's skeleton was discovered, wrapped in old newspaper, in a chimney crevice at the Mitre Hotel, Burnley, by workers carrying out renovation work in July, 1995.

Despite police inquiries and an inquest, the baby's identity and cause of death remain a mystery.

From the date on The Times newspaper used to wrap the body it was thought the remains could have lain undiscovered for as long as 75 years.

One theory is that the baby was born to a woman staying at the hotel to be close to her lover at the nearby army barracks.

The funeral at Burnley Cemetery was attended by Co-op representatives, detectives who carried out investigations into the mystery and staff from the public house, where the child's bones were uncovered.

Mr Parker will lay a wreath at the grave on Thursday, three days before the National Day of the Dead. The Co-op met the funeral costs in August, 1995, and will again pay its respects to the unknown infant.

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